Football Alliance

In 1888, the same year the Football League was founded, The Combination was established by clubs who had been excluded from the Football League, initiated by Crewe Alexandra secretary J. G. Hall, and announced at the Royal Hotel in Crewe. However, while the Football League quickly proved a success, the Combination lacked central organisation, with poor planning and unfulfilled fixtures, and failed to complete its first season, finishing in April 1889 without a winner.{{cite news |last1=Whittle |first1=Paul |title=The Football Alliance: Teams Who Didn’t Make the League |url=https://the1888letter.com/the-football-alliance-teams-who-didnt-make-the-league/ |access-date=30 November 2021 |work=THE 1888 LETTER: Football Then And Now |date=4 April 2020}}{{cite book |last=Shury |first=Alan |author2=Brian Landamore |others=with Allen Kristensen and Tony Brown |title=The Definitive Newton Heath F.C. |orig-year=2002 |edition=2nd |series='Definitive' Club Histories |year=2005 |publisher=SoccerData |location=Nottingham |isbn=1-899468-16-1 |chapter=History of Newton Heath F.C. |page=11 }}

Several of The Combination founders met after the final Combination board meeting to discuss a new combination; four of those who agreed in principle to form a new league, South Shore, Burslem Port Vale, Notts Rangers, and Derby Midland, did not in fact do so, while Grimsby Town, originally considered too distant, was brought back into the fold.{{cite journal |title=Football Notes |journal=Birmingham Mail |date=8 April 1889 |page=4}} The remaining clubs then established the Football Alliance, to begin in the 1889–90 season. The Alliance covered a similar area to the League, stretching from the English Midlands to the North West, but also further east in Sheffield, Grimsby and Sunderland. The president of the Football Alliance was John Holmes, also the president of The Wednesday who were the first champions winning fifteen games out of twenty-two.

The nine founder clubs (eight bolded in the table below) originally decided to form the Alliance, originally under the name of the Northern Counties League,{{cite journal |title=A Rival Football League |journal=Derby Daily Telegraph |date=10 May 1889 |page=2}} and considered applications from 6 clubs to fill the remaining three places. Crewe Alexandra, Nottingham Forest, and Walsall Town Swifts were elected in the ballot, with Long Eaton Rangers, Halliwell, and Witton missing out.{{cite journal |title=A Rival Football League |journal=Nottinghamshire Guardian |date=18 May 1889 |page=3}} The clubs attended a meeting at the Midland Hotel in Derby in May 1889 to arrange fixtures, but, as Sunderland did not attend, it was assumed Sunderland did not intend to play; and Witton, South Shore, Burslem Port Vale, Derby Midland, Halliwell, and Long Eaton Rangers applied to join in its place. After Long Eaton Rangers and Witton tied in the voting, the casting vote of the chairman (Harry Mitchell of Mitchell St George's) was in favour of the Rangers.{{cite journal |title=The Football Alliance |journal=Sheffield Independent |date=29 May 1889 |page=8}}

At the end of the Alliance's first season, in accordance with the rules agreed at the start of the season, the bottom four clubs - Walsall Town Swifts, Small Heath, Long Eaton Rangers, and Nottingham Forest - had to apply for re-election, and, unlike the rule in the Football League the previous season, they were not allowed to vote; seven clubs (Stoke, Witton, South Shore, Chester, Burslem Port Vale, Sheffield United, and Lincoln City) applied for admission. Stoke, who had just failed re-election to the Football League, was admitted in place of Long Eaton Rangers, and the other bottom four clubs were re-elected.{{cite journal |title=Football Alliance |journal=Sheffield Independent |date=12 May 1890 |page=8}} The prizes awarded to the champions included a blue silk flag, with a white border, 12 feet by 6 feet, with the words "Alliance Champions" on it.{{cite journal |title=Sports and Pastimes |journal=Nottingham Evening Post |date=14 August 1890 |page=4}}

The following year, Stoke and Darwen, another Alliance club, were accepted into the Football League, taking its membership to 14 clubs. Stoke's biggest challenge in winning the title was the threat of expulsion from the Alliance, as Stoke had arranged a friendly with League club Notts County which clashed with an Alliance match at Nottingham Forest, and refused to pay the £10 fine imposed for so doing.{{cite journal |title=Threatened Expulsion of Stoke |journal=Sheffield Independent |date=7 March 1891 |page=7}}

At the end of the 1890-91 season, Sunderland Albion resigned in protest at having to pay half of the train fare of visiting clubs,{{cite journal |title=Football Alliance |journal=Liverpool Mercury |date=11 May 1891 |page=7}} and the bottom four clubs were re-elected back into the Alliance. To fill the three vacancies, eight clubs applied; Ardwick, Bury, Burton Swifts, Gainsborough Trinity, Middlesbrough,The Manchester Evening News uniquely suggests the applicant was Middlesbrough Ironopolis; in practice it may have been a joint application for both teams. Northwich Victoria, Lincoln City, and Sheffield United. The successful clubs were Ardwick, Burton Swifts, and Lincoln City{{cite journal |title=The Football Alliance |journal=Birmingham Daily Post |date=11 May 1891 |page=7}} - the last by one vote.

In 1892 it was decided to merge the two leagues, and so the Football League Second Division was formed, consisting mostly of Football Alliance clubs; the only Alliance club not to apply to join the League was the insolvent Birmingham St George's.{{cite journal |title=The Football League |journal=Sheffield Independent |date=14 May 1892 |page=7}} The existing League clubs, plus three of the strongest Alliance clubs, comprised the Football League First Division.

;Notes

¹ Elected to Football League First Division

² Elected to Football League Second Division

{{Reflist}}

{{Football League Championship seasons}}

{{Football Alliance seasons}}

Category:Defunct football leagues in England

Category:Sports leagues established in 1889